Segun Bucknor: 5 facts about the late phenomenal Nigerian Soul legend

Segun Bucknor is father to popular events planner Funke Bucknor and On–air personality Tosyn Bucknor.

Segun Bucknor, a journalist and prominent musician known for his Soul music style in the 70s has passed on August 11, 2017.

Bucknor is father to popular events planner Funke Bucknor and On–air personality Tosyn Bucknor.

 

In 1969, the legend led a band named Segun Bucknor and the Assembly. From Soul to Afrobeat to politically charged music, Segun and his team were a music force to reckon with.

Here are five facts surrounding the legendary musician Segun Bucknor.             

- Segun Bucknor attended the prestigious Kings College where he was in the choir and recorded music with Highlife bandleader Roy Chicago's Rhythm Dandies dance band.

- On his return from schooling in America, he brought Soul music back to Lagos in 1968, where he was influenced heavily by Ray Charles.

 

- Along with four friends, a band called The Soul Assembly was formed and later rebranded as Segun Bucknor & The Assembly, adding later a trio of singers called The Sweet Things to his band. and then again The Revolution, this time moving away from straight imitations of US soul and toward a more organically African expression of soul music. They released an album “ Poor Man No Get Brother.”

- Segun Bucknor had been reported by music writers as overshadowed by Fela Anikulapo Kuti who was also a prominent musician in the 60s. He was also said to be imitating Fela’s Afrobeat style and social commentary in songs like "Son of January 15th," (the date of the 1966 military coup d'etat that usurped Nigeria's First Republic) and "Pocket Your Bigmanism" (an indictment of the new Nigerian upper class). 

- In 1975, with the emergence of Yoruba Afro-juju musicians like Sunny Ade, the growing westernized  DJ Culture and the gradual disappearance of Eastern Nigerian musicians, during the civil war, Segun Bucknor disbanded the Revolution and focused on journalism, rarely performing music again.

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